Your Letters: Out Of Home Ec, Into Moose Calling

SIMON: Last Saturday marked the 40th anniversary of Title IX - the landmark legislation which requires federally funded schools to provide the same opportunities for girls as they do for boys. NPR's Claudio Sanchez reported on something Title IX hasn't changed, that's the numbers of women enrolled in classes and programs once reserved for male students, including construction, automotive service and engineering. One high school principal said in that report...

TOM EVANS: I think some of the fields, just the nature of the work that kids see going on in those fields, isn't going to attract that many women.

SIMON: Brent Chivers writes on our website, NPR.org: The restrictions went both ways. When I was in school there were no girls in the shop classes, and the boys weren't allowed to take Home Ec. Can anyone make the case that boys won't need to know how to cook, clean and sew?

And Eric Hurley writes: Often people argue that girls need to see women as successful scientists, engineers and athletes to be inspired toward those disciplines. I do not believe that role models always have to be within the demographic. I have had several women and people of other ethnic groups be role models in my life.

Now, on to a whole different kind of history. Maine held the first World Invitational Moose Calling Contest last Saturday. We talked with the competition's organizer and he showed us how it's done.

ROGER LAMBERT: Get your fingers on your nostrils so you get a little nasal quality there. And I start out with kind of a ma sound and see what you got. Let's hear it.

SIMON: Maaaa.

LAMBERT: Hey, that's a start.

SIMON: Joseph Arechavala of Camden, New Jersey writes: Wondering how many moose were waiting for you in the parking lot. Oh, scores of them, Mr. Arechavala, but they only had one thing on their mind.

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SIMON: We welcome your letters, more warmly than ever. You can come to our website, NPR.org and click on Contact Us. I'm on Twitter at NPR Scott Simon, all one word. And from all of us to all of you: maaaa, maaaa. You know what that means.

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SIMON: Hooves on the studio door. This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.